


Back in the Day

by sadie_elaine



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-27
Updated: 2014-03-27
Packaged: 2018-01-17 05:06:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1374874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadie_elaine/pseuds/sadie_elaine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the heat in the TARDIS goes out, the Doctor and Clara travel back to 1970 to get help from Dr. Liz Shaw.  (I'll warn you, I'm pretty bad at plot.  I just wanted an excuse to get Clara and Liz in the same room.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Back in the Day

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! So basically I've been shipping these gals for too long and since I can't find any fic at all, I've decided to go for it. I write slowly and not so well in the plot division, so I'm hoping some of y'all can catch the vision. Happy reading!

The Doctor stood grimacing at the disaster that was the heating unit of his TARDIS.  While he hadn’t noticed the temperature drop as he was bouncing around fixing and tinkering, Clara had informed him calmly when she came in for breakfast wrapped in her comforter.  At the moment, she was curled up in the corner with a cup of tea and a few extra layers on, glaring at him. 

“Um…” he dodged, poking the mess of living wires, attempting to find some order.  It had been centuries since the last time he’d tried to deal with the thermostat.  He had no clue what he was doing.

“You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?” Clara said helpfully.

“Of course I do!  I always know what I’m doing!  Oh wait- that’s a lie.  I don’t always know what I’m doing.  In fact, I-“

“Doctor!”

He turned to her, chastised.  “Yes, Clara?”

“I’m going to freeze to death in this ship.  If you can’t fix it, take me home and we can stay with my Dad for a bit.  I don’t suppose there’s a shop for TARDISes, is there?”

He thought about it for a moment.  “I’m fairly sure I’m the only one left who could fix this ship, but, you know, give me a moment and I’m sure I’ll remember how this bit works.  She’s a fairly large machine, you know.”

“And you threw out the manual, right.”

“Yes!  Well, it was wrong, anyhow,” he muttered.  “Oh! I’ve just had a brilliant idea!”

“Oh, great.  He’s got an idea.  Will this idea make the TARDIS warm again, or is it to do with food?”

He shook his head.  “Don’t be ridiculous, Clara.  Of course it’s to do with the TARDIS.  Come on, then!  UNIT headquarters, 1970!”

 

Liz thought she had been fairly patient with the Doctor today, but she was getting sick of waiting for him.  He’d gone off on “urgent business” with the Brigadier an hour ago and left her doing the monotonous side of science.  She’d been stirring and heating and recording results without him all this time and she was annoyed. 

_Any moment, now, Doctor_ , she thought.  _You can at least wash the beakers out._

But it was not the swish of his velvet cape that she heard next.

The TARDIS materialized on the opposite side of the lab, next to the TARDIS that was already there.  Rather than sound any alarms, Liz chose to wait it out and let the idiot explain himself when he inevitably popped out of the second ship.  She toyed with the idea of taking her safety goggles off, but decided against it.  Better safe than sorry, anyhow.

A young, scrawny man stumbled out of the TARDIS.  Floppy hair, bowtie, and limbs he obviously had no clue how to deal with.  Nope, not the man she was expecting.  She was reaching for a radio to call in someone with a gun when she remembered the bit about changing faces—the Brig hadn’t even recognized him in the hospital that day! Could he have made himself younger?  Then again, his wardrobe was certainly less…flamboyant. 

“Liz!” the young man grinned, “How’ve you been?  It’s been a long time, my dear.”  Apparently he was the Doctor after all.  “Doctor, have you changed yourself again?”

He seemed confused for a moment, but looked down at himself and remembered.  “Yes!  Well, no.   But yes, several times since the last time I saw you!  But no, I’m still here.”

Doctor Elizabeth Shaw was not accustomed to not understanding things.  This new, young Doctor seemed fairly comfortable with the confusion. 

“What he means to say is, the Doctor you know is still here, this idiot’s a future version.  He wouldn’t tell me why we came, so you’ll have to figure that out for yourself,” said a voice from inside the TARDIS.  An adorable nose popped out of the door, followed by an equally adorable young woman dressed like she was expecting a blizzard.  Still, cute as all get out.  An arm appeared from amisdst the blankets in greeting.  “Hello!  I’m Clara.”

Liz was torn.  Part of her wanted to scold the Doctor for crossing his own timeline, interrogate him, and figure out how to make him go away and her Doctor come back and clean the beakers.  But of course the vast majority of her wanted to giggle and introduce herself to the ridiculously attractive young woman in the overcoat and boots.  She opted for a compromise and shook Clara’s hand while giving the Doctor dirty looks.  “Liz,” she said, smiling shyly.

The Doctor was practically glowing.  “Clara, this is my friend Liz!  She’s very clever, and such.  Doctor Elizabeth Shaw!  One of the greats, obviously.  But of course, since most of her work was done on classified projects, she’s not particularly well remembered in the history books.  But when have the history books been right, anyhow?”

But Clara wasn’t paying attention—she was asking questions about the lab and the equipment and about Liz.  And Liz was blushing and giggling and answering in deceptively commanding tones.  For a moment, the Doctor steamed about not being the center of attention, but the feeling soon passed.  Clara was starting to giggle too.  What was going on here?  Had his friends shared a joke and not told him?  Wait—were they actually doubles of Clara and Liz and not themselves at all?  That would explain the giggling, for sure.  Then again, what would be the point of switching them out for giggling versions of themselves?  Robotic or evil clone versions would probably not be giggling.  He pulled out the sonic to check anyhow, but realized something in the process.  He’d seen this behavior before—Harry had acted that way around Sarah, and Rory had been acting like that when Amy first introduced him.  Rose giggled a lot around Jack when they’d picked him up.  And Martha!  Martha had acted that way toward him!  Oh! Oh. 

Obviously he was getting worse at detecting human emotions.  Romance was never really his thing, anyway.      

 


End file.
